Climate change case full of more than hot air

Friday

Jan 3, 2020 at 3:01 AM

A New York state judge ruled last month that those claiming that oil giant Exxon Mobil had lied to its investors about the potential impact of climate change regulations on the company’s bottom line did not sufficiently prove their case. The decision was seen by some as a significant setback for those who hoped to hold a major contributor to greenhouse gases to account for decades of dangerous behavior.

In his ruling, however, Judge Barry Ostrager did not let the company entirely off the hook, saying, "Nothing in this opinion is intended to absolve Exxon Mobil from responsibility for contributing to climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases." Now it remains to be seen if environmental activists can set a new tack to hold the corporation responsible for its part in what may be the greatest crisis the human species has ever faced.

At the heart of the case was an accusation that the oil giant had lied to investors about the estimated impact that climate change regulations would have on future profits. Litigants argued that publicly minimizing the effect of such regulations created a false sense about the future profitability of the company. Exxon Mobil reportedly uses two approaches when it comes to assessing the possible financial impact of climate change. One predicts how global demand for oil and gas may be affected by regulations, while the other examines how local rules may have an impact on a project-by-project basis. The New York State Attorney General’s office argued that the twofold approach was designed to obfuscate the total cost of such regulations.

In contrast, Exxon Mobil claimed that there was no intent to mislead investors and that the lawsuit represented a foolish waste of taxpayer dollars that would ultimately have no impact on the issue of climate change.

This case, however, is far from the final word when it comes to holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for the impact it has had and continues to have on the environment. Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, pledged that the fight will continue, saying “The fossil fuel industry’s day of reckoning will come.”

Perhaps instead of parsing how much work the world’s leading producer of oil and natural gas has done to falsely assuage the concerns of stockholders, lawyers should instead be looking at how ExxonMobil, along with others in the fossil fuel industry, consistently worked to sow confusion and dissent on the topic of climate change when its own research indicated that it was happening.

Consider an internal Exxon report from 1977 – before the company merged with Mobil – that shows the company’s own research indicated that the burning of fossil fuels was contributing to climate change. Consider that despite this evidence, the company spent the next couple of decades not only ignoring the fact that climate change was occurring, but spending millions of dollars to deliberately spread misinformation, casting the very idea of climate change into doubt. Consider that we continue to live with the ramifications of that doubt inasmuch as the federal government – partly through a purposely confused public and the corresponding lack of political pressure – has done little to curb the impact of climate change, and that the current administration has actually rolled back environmental provisions designed to help combat the problem.

The scenario is eerily similar to an approach taken by American tobacco companies, which for decades claimed that the dangers of smoking remained unproven, despite knowing years earlier that their products were killing people. In fact, this knowledge only helped spur on their efforts to lure younger and younger users, with the companies understanding that a large portion of their consumer base was dying off each year as a direct result of their products. In fact, the fossil fuel industry employed some of the same consultants the tobacco industry had to push its version of the truth.

But while the tobacco companies’ lies were reprehensible, their impact is and was far less expansive than that of climate change. And yet, while the companies that produce tobacco products have been held accountable, the companies that produce fossil fuels continue to enjoy charmed corporate lives, apparently immune to the impact of their decisions.

Unfortunately, the rest of us who live on this planet aren't so lucky. Kimmell may be right that the fossil fuel industry’s day of reckoning is coming, but there is little indication that it will get here before we all face the consequences.

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